Black students at the UCLA School of Law released a video earlier this month sharing their stories of being among the few blacks on the campus, the Huffington Post reported.
The video, which was released as part of an awareness campaign titled "33," depicts the emotional toll placed upon students of color due to their alarmingly low representations within the student body. Students said they often felt marginalized, left out, and disregarded the law school.
"I am so tired of being on this campus everyday and having to plead my humanity, essentially, to other students. I feel like an outsider constantly. I don't feel like at my own school I can solely focus on being a student," one woman explained in the video.
According to the video, only 33 out of nearly 1,100 students attending the law school are black. Official statistics reveal that out of 994 students, including those receiving their Juris Doctor, only 33 of them are black. The 1,100 figure mentioned in the video likely includes students receiving their Master of Laws, university officials told the Huffington Post.
Several students have said that being one the few students of campus put a lot of pressure on them.
"It feels like there's a lot of pressure on me to do well, which I don't necessarily mind, but it's hard," one man said.
One student said she often felt characterized as an "angry black woman" when she disagreed with the views of a particular professor.
"The fact that I was a black woman played a lot into why people stopped listening to me. I felt like if there were maybe more black women in the class, maybe just five of us, people could have seen more of a variation in our responses to what was going on in class and what I felt like was sexism in the classroom," she said.
The UCLA School of Law's Dean Rachel F. Moran released a statement to the Huffington Post explaining that the institution is committed to access and opportunity.
"UCLA Law students eloquently have expressed their frustration and disappointment with the low number of African-American students at the law school," Moran said. "We share their frustrations and we remain determined to do everything possible to increase the diversity of each incoming class."
Moran said she has been working with her administration to provide opportunities to facilitate constructive conversations regarding this issue and to provide additional support.